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EU Ministers Expect Zone to Rally;
Central Bank Urges More Rigor

By

Peter GoldsteinDow Jones Newswires

Updated Sept. 13, 1999 1:15 a.m. ET

TURKU, Finland -- The likelihood of robust economic growth next year in the euro zone -- perhaps close to 3% -- will focus the European Central Bank's attention on governments' willingness to sustain fiscal and structural reform, officials here said.

Excited talk of imminent tax cuts in France, Belgium, Netherlands, and elsewhere around the zone has raised fears in the financial markets that renewed fiscal laxity will anger the rigor-conscious ECB, further complicating interest rate policy.